Girls Got Rhythm Fest

Girls Got Rhythm Fest is organized by Dana Raidt (former editor in chief of METRO magazine, former music director at KUOM/Radio K) and Travis Ramin (prolific musician/producer/composer, co-owner of Ramo Records). This two-day festival takes place at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in St. Paul, Minn., and prominently features groundbreaking lady musicians and female-led bands from across the U.S. and around the world. For more info go to girlsgotrhythmfest.com

Cherie Currie

Cherie Currie is an artist, an actress, a singer, and an author. She began her career in the legendary band, The Runaways along side Joan Jett and Lita Ford. As the lead singer of the first all female rock/punk band, she helped stretch the boundaries for future female artists. Cherie's story as told in Neon Angel (It Books/Harper Collins) was the subject of the recent film, The Runaways starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie.

Cherie recently went back in the studio with Matt Sorum of Velvet Revolver and Guns n Roses. With Sorum producing and on drums, together they created and album featuring guest appearances from the likes of Slash, Billy Corgan, Julliette Lewis, Duff McKagan, and more. Key tracks include Blvds of Splendor written by and featuring Billy Corgan and Mr. X, the guitar forward and pure rock n roll track, featuring Slash on guitar, Duff Mackagan on bass, Matt Sorum on drums, and of course stellar vocals by Cherie Currie.

The Avengers

San Francisco’s The Avengers are fronted by Penelope Houston, a seminal member of the Bay Area punk scene and a prolific solo artist. These punk-rock pioneers, who opened the Sex Pistols’ farewell show at Winterland Ballroom in 1978, made musical history with their fearless, fervent brand of punk. The Avengers’ previously out-of-print self-titled 1983 release (known as “The Pink Album”) was reissued in 2012 as a two-CD set complete with outtakes, live recordings and liner notes from music journalist Greil Marcus.

Sugar Stems

Formed in Milwaukee in 2007, this band has been delighting power-pop fans for several years with its shamelessly sweet melodies and upbeat, impossibly catchy songs. And if there's one person on earth who was born to sing hook-driven, feel-good pop of this magnitude, it would be the talented Betsy Heibler. With ties to both classic power pop and the phenomenal early 2000s Wisconsin punk scene, the Sugar Stems bring plenty of power to go with their dizzying sugar rush of pop.

The band’s 2012 sophomore album, Can't Wait, gets an American release on Dirtnap Records April 9, 2013. This terrific LP shows "growth" in all the best ways. Without abandoning its signature honeyed melodies and high-spirited candy pop style, the band has made a more mature and consistent album that's definitely its best to date. The production has been stepped up another notch, and every song sounds like a hit. If you missed the singles "Greatest Pretender" and "Like I Do", they're here in all their infectious glory. But it's the more melancholy tracks that really showcase Betsy Heibler's development into one of the finest songwriters working today. Songs like "Make Up Your Mind" and the gorgeous "Love You to Pieces" are steeped in the timeless traditions of Brill Building and British Invasion pop, yet feel entirely fresh in the year 2013. Even when the songs themselves are not exactly happy, there's something about the Sugar Stems' music that just makes you feel good.

--Josh Rutledge, Faster And Louder

Ana Lucia

After gaining underground popularity and cult status with Chicago punk-rock band the Busy Signals (who had multiple singles, one classic album on Dirtnap Records and a legendary set at the 2008 Radio Heartbeat Power Pop Festival), Ana Lucia became one of the country’s premier punk singers.

Her debut self-titled solo album was released on Ramo Records in 2012 (produced by Girls Got Rhythm Fest co-founder Travis Ramin). Recorded at Geza X’s Satellite Park Studios by punk legend Paul Roessler (Screamers, 45 Grave, Twisted Roots), the album combines the Dangerhouse punk sound with new wave along the lines of Blondie or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Ana Lucia now resides in Berlin and is making a special trip to the States to perform at Girls Got Rhythm Fest!

"Well! How's this for ending the year in style? Ana Lucia - lead singer of the late, great Busy Signals - has made her first solo album. And our old friend Travis Ramin is her producer/collaborator/bandmate extraordinaire! Needless to say, it sounds unbeatable on paper. Everything Travis Ramin touches turns to gold, and no doubt the Busy Signals were one of the very finest punk bands of the mid-2000s. You have to own this, right? Is The Pope Catholic? Do I like beer? The sales pitch promises a blend of Dangerhouse Records style punk rock and new wave power pop, and that turns out to be remarkably accurate. Recorded at Geza X's Satellite Park Studios by the legendary Paul Roessler (45 Grave, The Screamers), this album boasts enough star power to make the Los Angeles Angels envious. And it does not disappoint. Ana Lucia's got a rich, powerful voice, and in many ways she's a throwback to the classic punk/new wave frontwomen of yore. If anyone's got the attitude and pipes to pull off this Blondie meets The Bags type deal, it is she.
A la her work with the Busy Signals, Ana Lucia's solo debut is the good kind of pop-punk. The songs pack a mean punch, and the hooks are massive. A couple tracks (like the sublime leadoff smash "Mad Man") are typical of a Travis Ramin production. But for the most part, this record is more hard candy than bubblegum. Songs like "Take Take Take" and "Hush Hush" are near perfect specimens of buzzsaw punk infused with tasty pop melodies - and lord knows I have a great weakness for that sort of thing. Across the board, the material is top-notch. "Mess Around" may be the best song Debbie Harry never wrote, and even the spooky "Watcher" (featuring Roessler guesting on keyboards) is hugely infectious. Plus all you punk historian geeks will really appreciate inspired renditions of Sado-Nation's "Gimme You" and The Zips' "Take Me Down"! "
--Josh Rutledge, Faster and Louder

"These Memphis gals are so talented, they've played blindfolded. They also put out some of the most solid punk since the '90s riot grrl heyday. With only a drum and guitar, the duo creates bare-bones, driving rock that goes straight for the jugular... These scrappy girls self-manage, self-release and refuse to be judged for their sex appeal only. Poly Styrene, rest her soul, would be proud." --Caroline Pate, Creative Loafing (Charlotte, NC)

"There’s really no other way to describe the Vignettes than as a kick-ass girl rock group from Memphis... Their music is FIERCE... it’s loud, in your face rock and roll." --Nicole Jones, NavigatorNic (Manchester, UK)

Gateway District

With over five decades of combined experience in basement shows and beer drinking, the members of Minneapolis-based Gateway District are professionals. Yep, they've been here that long, and they've got the credentials to back it up: past and current projects like the Salteens, Rivethead, the Soviettes, American Monsters, Dear Landlord and Banner Pilot. True-to-form Minneapolis punk rock with lady-type singing, sprawling guitar and words for thought; good for dancing, driving and 4am reunions.

Marilu and the Machetes

Pisa, Italy-based Marilu and the Machetes is a new band fronted by Mariluisa Fagiani, formerly of The Piperita Patties. Mariluisa run a "girls only" label called Astro Girl and has also been in The Hit Girls. The boys of Marilu and the Machetes (Checco, Marco and Reverendo) also play in surfbilly instrumental band called The Fake Youngsters.

Total Trash

Total Trash was started in early 2012 when Jessica Katz and Dustin McChesney bought 100 pink tapes and wrote some pretty cool music to put on them. Joel Gomez joined the band when he heard them practicing and decided to promptly walk into the room and introduce himself. After playing a few well-attended local shows, their self-titled debut cassette was released in July of 2012. Layla Gibbon, editor of Maximum Rocknroll called the release "an essential new piece of Midwestern hardcore, the eternal sound of rage and disappointment", and the band was thrilled. After taking a short break in the fall, drummer Jared Sather joined the group. Total Trash came back into the writing process and recorded once again in January 2013 for the upcoming cassette "You Don't Try" will be released March 14, 2013.

Is/Is

"Their style of rock calmly floats that watery divide between raucous, overwhelming noise and placid beauty. What is beyond argument is that Is/Is has nailed it." –BUST magazine

"Do you ever see a lady sitting in her car on a hot summer day, smoking a cig with the windows rolled down and wonder, “How can people enjoy taking hot smoke into their body when it’s hot as holy hell outside?” But at the moment of dismissing the lady in question as common trash, her boyfriend comes out of the bodega she’s parked in front of with a dripping six-pack of beer, and when her eyes meet his, she smiles and flicks the cig onto the concrete. You stare at the ring of brick red lipstick around the butt as they pull away thinking, “I should be doing more with my life."' –VICE magazine

"Inspired as much by punk, ’90s sludge-rock and Fleetwood Mac’s darker moments as they are by Mazzy Star, Black Tambourine and Spiritualized, the songs are impressively multifaceted." – METRO magazine

Sponsored by: Heineken, The Boxx, Yelp, Red Bull, The Current

$35.00

Off Sale

THIS IS A WEEKEND PASS GOOD FOR BOTH FRIDAY, MAY 10TH AND SATURDAY, MAY 11TH.